Due to Covid-19 restrictions and the impact of lockdown this project was unable to go ahead.

From JRR Tolkien’s ‘Elvish’ to the aliens’ ‘Klingon’ in Star Trek movies; or the curious whistling in the Clangers children’s TV programme, the history of ‘artificial’ languages in art and literature, is fascinating. As a deaf bilingual signer/ speaker, it is notable however, that there exists no artificially constructed language in signing.

I propose to invite local Deaf / Hard of hearing people in and around Oxford to create a wholly new and ‘alien’ sign language: ‘Slangon’. Following the convention of travel guide books that often include around 100 words/phrases in a foreign language, this group will meet in a series of workshops to invent a similar-sized vocabulary for Slangon. This will form the basis for a ‘video dictionary’ with each word/phrase performed by its inventor to camera.

Once a basic vocabulary of Slangon has been designed through this series of workshops it will then be used as the central component in a public interventionist performance. In the manner of the ‘Esperanto Literature Stalls’ that were fairly visible in the 1960s to 80s, that sought to market a new worldwide language (ie Esperanto), the Slangon creators will attempt to ‘sell’ their new language to the public on Oxford’s Gloucester Green Market. A phrase book menu of photographs of the new signs, along with demonstrations by the stall holders is available for the public’s consideration.

The aim is to create a fun, participatory experiment with the public and to challenge perceptions towards Deaf people. This performance could form the basis for a short documentary film.